The important thing is to know how much time you need and to set that time aside. (It’s a good idea to round up when blocking off time – if you finish early, you can move to your next project … or take a coffee break.)

Have ideas ready

Your editorial calendar should have topics, but you may have gaps in your calendar or you may have only included themes.

In these cases, it is helpful to have an idea arsenal. You can pull your content ideas from:

Idea parking lot: Have a file where you save ideas as they come to you. Your ideas will be there when you need it.

Headline list: Brainstorm a list of potential blog post headlines. Well-written headlines can give you a great start to a post.

News: Pull from industry news. Share your insight on a hot topic in the industry.

Prep now

Don’t get caught without a blog post.

Take steps now to save yourself headaches later. If you don’t already have an editorial calendar, create one now. Also, now is the time to create an idea parking lot and/or brainstorm a list of headlines.

Ha! Don’t we all have this issue You want to write something but your brain just takes a total unannounced vacation :). I usually just write down things on a notepad or on my iPhone and than finish the post later on in the day or the next day. Thanks for sharing these tips as well.

LinkedIn forums are a great way of getting ideas for blog content – if people are talking about it, you can blog about it. Even better, with any luck, you will get the for and against arguments from other people’s comments. Win-win.

I take a week to write a short blog post … I schedule 5″ a day for my blog post. Monday, I select the topic from my idea file and start the document with a headline. Tues-Thurs I draft the document. Friday I polish and write the tags. It makes the process pretty painless that way.